The Top Rated Doctor Who Podcast. One fan, One mic and an opinion. What more does anyone need? Daleks, TARDIS, Cybermen, Sontarans, Ood, Classic Series. Home of Whostrology and the Big Finish Retrospective.

Synopsis

The TARDIS travellers arrive in a bizarre landscape seemingly immune to the physical laws governing the rest of the universe. Ace, Hex, Sally and Lysandra battle to rescue the Doctor from the trap he's walked into… soon realising that the odds are stacked against them.

Because the Doctor is playing an old adversary again: Fenric, shatterer of worlds. But the gods and monsters who inhabit this strange realm loaded the dice against them long ago, in the dim and distant past – and defeat's their only option.

The tenth series of the British science fictionsitcomRed Dwarf, commenced broadcast on UK television channel Dave from 4 October 2012.[1] It will have six episodes and is the first full series of Red Dwarf since 1999.

Contents

Production

Dave announced it had ordered a tenth series of Red Dwarf on 10 April 2011, following the success of Back to Earth and three years of speculation.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] Dates for filming series X were announced on 11 November 2011, along with confirmation that the series would again be shot at Shepperton Studios in front of an audience.[11] Principal filming began on 16 December 2011 and ended on 27 January 2012, and the cast and crew subsequently returned for six days filming pick ups.[12] On 4 May 2012 Howard Goodall, who had composed music for Red Dwarf from its beginning until series VII, was announced as composer of the score for Red Dwarf X.[13] On 19 June 2012, the post-production process was completed and all 6 episodes were signed off ready for their broadcast in the following Autumn.[14]

Crew

The main crew for the series was announced by Broadcast Magazine on 23 August 2012.[1]

Promotion

The first trailer for Red Dwarf X was released on 20 July 2012 on Dave's official Facebook page, and is followed by a new teaser released every following Friday until the series premiere.[15]Red Dwarf X began airing on 4 October 2012.[16]

Episodes

Rimmer receives an SOS distress from a doomed ship commanded by his all-conquering brother, Howard. But Rimmer can't bring himself to save Howard until he's on an equal footing career-wise. He has 15 hours to pass his Astro-Nav exam and become an Officer. The same exam he's already failed 9 times.

The episode is dedicated to the memory of Jo Howard (Production Manager - Series VII, Line Producer - Series VIII, and Producer - Back to Earth). [17]

Every year Lister sends himself a Father's day card to celebrate the fact that he is his own father but when Rimmer points out he's been a lousy father to himself Lister decides to do something about it. Meantime Rimmer and Kryten install a new computer, the beautiful, but lethally logical, Pree (played by Rebecca Blackstone)

Plot

On Varos, a planet in the constellation of Cetes, the public torture of the rebel Jondar is taking place and being broadcast throughout the planet. Varosians Arak and Etta watch the proceedings from their room. Arak complains that they never show anything new to watch. In addition to the lack of new programming, the two must also deal with food rationing. And that night will be a punch-in vote ordered by the Governor, and voting is mandatory.

Meanwhile, the Doctor is repairing the TARDIS console. Peri complains that the Doctor has caused three electrical fires, a power failure, nearly collided with a storm of asteroids, got lost in the TARDIS corridors twice, wiped the memory banks of the flight computer, jettisoned three quarters of the storage hold, and burned her "cold dinner", all since the time-travellers left Telos (Attack of the Cybermen). Minutes later, the TARDIS unexpectedly stops, stalled in the middle of deep space. And the Doctor can do nothing to fix it.

Sil, the Mentor representative of the Galatron Mining Corporation, is negotiating with the Governor over the price of Varos’ Zeiton-7 ore. Their discussion, like many others, ends in stalemate. For many years, the Galatron Mining Corporation has swindled Varos by paying far less for the ore than its market value. And to make matters worse, the Chief Officer is in league with Sil. The Governor moves on to conduct the night’s vote. He addresses the people asking for their vote on if they should hold out longer for a fair price on the ore. The Governor loses and is forced to endure Human Cell Disintegration Bombardment. The process slowly kills the target and this is the third time his recommendations have failed to pass. The guard Bax recommends that the Governor execute Jondar to please the citizens so he can recuperate before the next vote.

Peri locates the TARDIS manual and presents it to the Doctor who quickly dismisses it. He knows perfectly well what has caused their dilemma. The transitional elements within the TARDIS have stopped producing orbital energy and they need Zeiton-7 ore to realign the power systems. And as the Doctor explains, Zeiton-7 is exceptionally rare and only comes from one planet: Varos. The Doctor manages to repair the TARDIS enough to travel to Varos and arrives right before the execution of Jondar is to take place.

The guard on station to watch over the execution believes the TARDIS is merely a hallucination caused by the Punishment Dome. The Doctor and Peri exit the TARDIS and think they are hallucinations as well. And with some help from the chained Jondar, the guard is incapacitated. The two free Jondar and make their escape, after being cut off from the TARDIS by more guards. They are then rescued by Rondel, who has defected after speaking with Areta, and decided to help them. But he is killed shortly thereafter by pursuing guards.

The Doctor, Peri, Jondar, and Areta continue on through the Punishment Dome, attempting to make their way back to the TARDIS. But during a run-in with another group of guards, the Doctor is separated from the others who are arrested. He enters a corridor that appears psychologically as a desert. And with all of Varos watching, the Doctor succumbs to the heat and collapses with his end as a close-up.

During the ordeal, Peri has been brought to the control center in the company of the Governor, Sil and the other officers. They question her as she watches them bring the Doctor’s body to an acid bath for disposal. It is also revealed that he is not dead, but his mind was influenced to make him believe he was dying of thirst in a desert. The Doctor suddenly stands up and walks over to the two attendants while their backs were turned. The surprise causes the first attendant to jump, pushing the second into the bath. A struggle ensues and the attendant is then pulled into the acid bath by the second who reaches up and grabs him. The Doctor strolls out with a morbid quip.

After making his way from the acid baths, the Doctor is cornered by Quillam, Varos’ chief scientist, and is taken away. Back in the control centre, it is decided that the Doctor and Jondar will be executed in a good "old-fashioned" way while Peri and Areta are to be reshaped with a cell mutator. The Doctor and Jondar are placed in the nooses while the Governor and Sil watch. At the last moment the Doctor questions the Governor about Sil and his extortion. Sil’s bodyguards rush the platform where the nooses are and pull the lever. But the two simply fall through the holes, the rope coming right off the support. As it turns out, there was to be no execution — it was all a way to get information out of the Doctor. The Doctor suspected this as he noticed that they were not being filmed.

The group then attempts to stop the cell mutator on Peri and Areta, but they are told it’s at too advanced a stage to stop. The Doctor and Jondar grab the weapons of nearby guards in an attempt to intimidate Quillam to deactivate the mutator. But it fails, and the Doctor resorts to shooting the entire control panel. The process has been stopped in the nick of time and Peri and Areta return to their original form. The four then escape back into the depths of the Punishment Dome towards a possible escape route. But Peri, still in a stupor after the effects of the mutator, is recaptured and taken to the control centre.

The Chief and Sil make their final move on the Governor in hopes that during the next vote he will be killed by the Human Cell Disintegration Bombardment, securing the way for them to control Varos and the Zeiton-7 ore. Meanwhile, the Doctor, Jondar, and Areta make their way into the End Zone of the Dome, where the exit is supposed to be. The vote starts and the bombardment begins, but the guard Meldak has a change of heart and stops the device, saving the Governor and Peri. The three then make their way to meet up with the Doctor through the ventilation ducts.

The Doctor’s group is then chased by two cannibals and loses them in some poisonous tendrils. The Chief and Quillam arrive on the scene but are entangled in the tendrils, killing them. They then meet up with Peri, the Governor, and Meldak. They all make their way back to the control centre and put an end to Sil’s plans of controlling Varos. The Galatron Mining Corporation also began to side with Varos; a second source of Zeiton-7 ore has been found, and Sil is ordered to obtain the Varosian ore at any price. The Doctor and Peri then bid the Governor farewell, taking the replacement ore with them.

The Governor issues a message to the citizens saying that there will be no more injustice, torture, and executions. Arak and Etta watch in disbelief, wondering what they’ll do with their new-found freedom.

Continuity

This story begins very soon after Attack of the Cybermen. Peri lists a number of problems the Doctor has caused since they left Telos.

Sil was originally to have returned in a Philip Martin serial for the 23rd season entitled Mission to Magnus, but when the season was postponed and all planned stories scrapped, Sil's return instead occurred in Mindwarp. Martin later novelised Mission to Magnus, which was published in 1990. In 2009, Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant and Nabil Shaban returned for an audio adaptation of Mission to Magnus.

The scenes including the Varosians Arak and Etta are completely detached from the story and the two are never encountered by the main characters.

A long-standing myth holds that the Doctor pushes one or two guards into an acid bath. During the serial's original broadcast, the series drew criticism for being too violent. However, the Doctor does not actually push the guards into the acid. One falls in by accident and then pulls the other in.

Production

This story was written as a replacement for a serial called Song of the Space Whale by comics writer Pat Mills.[5]

Working titles for this story included Domain and Planet of Fear (the latter being vetoed for being too similar to the previous season's Planet of Fire).[5]

The story was first written for the 1982 season, but was repeatedly pushed back and re-written. In its final draft, the story had a number of comedic sequences, most of which wound up being cut, and one of which, the acid bath sequence, was played seriously. The result was that the final story was much darker than originally intended. The more grim acid bath sequence was much criticised for its tone and for the Doctor's flippant remark at the end of the scene.

During the first recording of the noose execution scene, part of the set collapsed under the weight of the actors. Fortunately, this did not happen when Baker and Connery actually had their necks in the nooses (although in that case, for safety reasons the nooses were not actually tied up).[6]

A novelisation of this serial, written by Philip Martin, was published by Target Books in January 1988. It was originally planned to be released 2 years earlier, but was pushed back after delays in the delivery of the manuscript by Philip Martin. However, it kept its original number of 106. In addition, although Target had launched a new cover design format for the books with the previous volume, Time and the Rani, reflecting the new series logo of the Sylvester McCoy era, Vengeance on Varos was published with the earlier book cover format using the neon-tube logo of the Baker-Davison era.

In 1997 the novel was also issued by BBC Audio as an audio book, read by Colin Baker.

VHS and DVD releases

This story was released on VHS in the UK in 1993 as part of the Doctor Who 30th Anniversary celebrations.

Every object tells a story. From ancient urns and medieval flasks to sonic screwdrivers and glass Daleks, these 100 objects tell the story of the entire universe, and the most important man in it: the Doctor.

Each item has a unique tale of its own, whether it's a fob watch at the onset of the Great War or a carrot growing on the first human colony on Mars. Taken together, they tell of empires rising and falling, wars won and lost, and planets destroyed and reborn.

Within these pages lie hidden histories of Time Lords and Daleks, the legend of the Loch Ness Monster, the plot to steal the Mona Lisa and the story of Shakespeare's lost play. You'll find illustrated guides to invisible creatures, the secret origins of the internet, and how to speak Mechonoid.

A History of the Universe in 100 Objects is an indispensible guide to the most important items that have ever existed, or that are yet to exist.

Plot

The Axons land on Earth, desperately in need of fuel. They propose to exchange the miracle substance they call Axonite for some much needed energy. Axonite is a "thinking" molecule that can replicate any substance... or so they claim. As it turns out, the ship is a single organism called Axos whose purpose is to feed itself by draining all energy through the Axonite (which is just a part of itself), including the energy of every life form on Earth. The deception about the Axonite's beneficial properties was to facilitate the distribution of Axonite across the globe.

Meanwhile, the Master, who was captured by Axos and used his knowledge of Earth as a bargaining chip for his life and freedom, escapes Axos and makes his way to the Doctor's TARDIS — his own having been seized by Axos. He plans to repair it to escape from Earth.

Axos itself becomes interested in the Doctor's knowledge of time travel. It now plans to broaden its feeding base by travelling through time as well as space. The Doctor, realising this, plans to trick Axos into linking up its drive unit to his TARDIS so that he can send Axos into a perpetual time loop. After tricking the Master into completing the repairs on his TARDIS, the Doctor does just that. This results in every part of Axos dematerialising from Earth, including the Axon automatons and the Axonite.

At the end, with the Master having escaped in his own TARDIS during the confusion aboard Axos, the Doctor returns to Earth, but not of his own volition. The Time Lords have programmed the TARDIS to always return to Earth, the Doctor states that he is a "galactic yo-yo!".

The Axons reappear in the Eleventh DoctorDoctor Who Magazine comic strip "The Golden Ones", beginning in issue #425. In this story they are behind a brain-enhancing drink and associated anime show in Tokyo. The drink transforms children into Axons by "increasing the links between neurons in the brain" - in other words, the axons.[1]

The Angel's Kiss: A Melody Malone Mystery is a 2012 mystery novel fictionally written by the character of River Song under the detective pen-name Melody Malone.[1] The book is based on a story partially told in British science fiction television series Doctor Who episode "The Angels Take Manhattan". The Angel's Kiss is a prequel to the story shown in the episode, as well as the book The Doctor reads within the show, as The Angel's Kiss does not contain the chapter revealing Amy Pond's departure. The book was released in e-book format on October 4, 2012.[2]

Summary

The story follows titular character Melody Malone, a detective that has been hired by film star Rock Railton. Railton believes that he is to be killed and makes mention to the "kiss of the Angel", which piques Malone's curiosity enough to take the case. Melody is further drawn into the mystery when studio owner Max Kliener notices her at a press party and insists on making her into a star. Soon Melody discovers that Kliener's intents are not entirely honest and that she must find a way to escape what he has in store for her before it is too late.[3]

"The Angels Take Manhattan"[3] is the fifth episode of the seventh series of the revived British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast on BBC One on 29 September 2012.[2] It is the last in the first block of episodes in the seventh series, to be followed by a Christmas special. The episode was written by head writer Steven Moffat and directed by Nick Hurran. The story takes place in New York[4] and features recurring monsters the Weeping Angels.[5]

Contents

Plot

In the prologue, private detective Sam Garner in 1938 New York is hired by the shady Mr. Grayle to investigate "moving statues" at the Winter Quay, a set of apartment blocks. There, Sam finds an elderly version of himself dying in a bed. Chased by Weeping Angels to the rooftop, the man is confronted by a grimacing Statue of Liberty.

In present-day New York City, the Doctor, Amy, and Rory enjoy a picnic in Central Park. The Doctor is reading to Amy from a 1930s detective pulp novel, "The Angel's Kiss: A Melody Malone Story", while Rory leaves them to go for coffee. As he reads, the Doctor tears out the last page, noting he does this to avoid endings. Continuing, the Doctor and Amy are surprised to find Rory turn up in the plot of the novel. The Doctor and Amy continue to read in concurrence with events in the past, as Rory is joined by the book's lead character, Melody Malone, who turns out to be River Song. They are both abducted by Grayle's henchmen. River tells Rory that New York is subjected to unusual time distortions which would prevent the TARDIS from landing in this time period. As the Doctor and Amy return to the TARDIS, he scolds her to not read ahead in the novel for fear of creating a fixed point in time that they must follow, as she has already read about the Doctor breaking River's wrist.

Grayle has Rory locked up in his basement with cherub-shaped Weeping Angels with only a box of matches to protect himself, while River is taken to his secured office. Information she provides via the book allows the Doctor to signal her via the writing on an old Chinese vase, and she activates a homing beacon, allowing the Doctor to guide the TARDIS to Grayle. In the meantime Grayle has shown River a damaged Weeping Angel, part of his collection, and allowed it to grab River's wrist to gain information about the Angels from her. Amy deduces that River will write the book and correctly guesses that she would have left hints. They identify Rory's location from the chapter titles in the novel, and the Doctor sends Amy to rescue him. However, the Doctor finds the last chapter is about Amy's farewell and frets. Upset, he tells River to free herself from the Angel without breaking her wrist. The Doctor joins Amy and finds that Rory has run out of matches and with no means to look at the Angels was snatched by them. River appears, having freed herself apparently without harm from the Angel, and soon locates Rory nearby at Winter Quay: he has unusually been moved in space and not time. However, as they race to leave, the Doctor grabs River's hand and discovers that her wrist is broken. Realising the events of the book are still coming true, the Doctor uses his regeneration energy to heal River.

At the Quay, Rory is drawn to an apartment labelled with his name, just as the others catch up to him. In the apartment, they find an elderly Rory on his death bed, calling to Amy before dying. The Doctor realises that Rory's fate is now assured; the Doctor recognises that the Quay has been used by the Angels many times within the populous New York City as a battery farm, leaving their victims to live out their lives in solitude, whilst the Angels feast on their energy. Rory and Amy refuse to accept their fate, insisting they can run from the Angels forever. The Doctor and River agree, and help to distract the Angels converging on them.

Amy and Rory make it to the roof of the building, where the Statue of Liberty, a giant Angel itself, awaits to take Rory to the past. Rory determines there is another exit — were he to die by jumping from the roof before the Angels take him, a paradox would be created, ending their preying methods and wiping them from existence. Rather than pushing him as he requests, Amy opts to join him, and just as the Doctor and River reach the roof, the two jump, creating the paradox and killing the Angels.

The four find themselves in a New York graveyard in the present era again, though the Doctor notes with the paradox, he can no longer travel to that point in time for fear of destroying New York. As the others enter the TARDIS, Rory spots a tombstone with his name on it — moments before he is touched by one surviving Angel and disappears into the past. A distraught Amy convinces herself that if she were touched by the same Angel, it would send her to the same time it sent Rory. While she is still staring at the Angel she tearfully says goodbye to River. The Doctor tries to talk her out of it, knowing he can't return to the past to see her again, but River insists she goes. Amy finally says goodbye to the "Raggedy Man" - her early nickname for the Doctor - as she turns to face him and lets the Angel take her. The tombstone then changes to reflect Amy's presence in the past with Rory, both having died at an old age.

In the TARDIS, the distraught Doctor asks River to travel with him, which she agrees to do, but "not always". He considers this, and suddenly realises that while River may be the author of "The Angel's Kiss", Amy would be the one to publish the book, and may have left a final message in the afterword. He races back to their picnic spot to find the page he tore out earlier containing the afterword. In it, Amy tells him that she and Rory love him and assures him that they lived a good and happy life together. She also requests that he pay another visit to her younger self to reassure her that he will come back for her and take her on amazing journeys. As the episode ends, young Amelia Pond waits for the Doctor in her garden, looking to the skies as she hears the sound of the TARDIS engines.

The closing view of young Amelia waiting in her garden reprises a scene from "The Eleventh Hour".

Production

Matt Smith during filming of the episode in Central Park, New York

In December 2011, Doctor WhoshowrunnerSteven Moffat announced that Amy and Rory would leave in the seventh series in "heartbreaking" circumstances.[7] Amy's exit was a mutual decision between Moffat and Gillan.[8] Gillan wanted her character to have a final ending, and ruled out returning to the show in the future as she felt it would take away from the impact of her final scene.[9][10] Moffat stated he felt "tremendous pressure" writing Amy and Rory's ending.[11] He later revealed that he "completely changed" the ending as he was writing it, feeling the emphasis was wrong.[12] Gillan refused to read the script for a few weeks after she received it because she "didn't want to make it real".[13] She said in an interview, "I literally couldn't read it without crying. It was the most highly-charged read-through I've ever experienced. But I couldn't have asked for a better exit. I don't think it'll be what people expect."[14] However, the final episode Gillan and Darvill shot as Amy and Rory was actually the previous episode, "The Power of Three".[13] Moffat was also interested in coming up with a new form for the Angels, and so he introduced the putti.[15]

Much of the episode was filmed in Central Park in New York City in April 2012.[16] The cast and crew were met with thousands of American fans, which surprised Smith, Gillan, and Darvill.[17] Other scenes were shot at night in the city, involving old-fashioned cars.[18] Moffat was in New York City when he came up with the story, and thought it was appropriate for the Weeping Angels.[19] He described the city as "a different backdrop" to shoot a Doctor Who story in, and made use of its architecture.[20] Fellow executive producer Caroline Skinner felt that the location "has such scale and romance" which "[gave] the episode a real atmosphere and a very different tone for Doctor Who".[19] This marks the second time Doctor Who has filmed principal photography in the United States, the first being the opening sixth series episodes "The Impossible Astronaut"/"Day of the Moon".[21] The week spent filming in the city was done by a "small unit by American standards" according to producer Marcus Wilson. They did not take any props of Angels or the TARDIS, which were instead added in post-production.[15] Other filming locations included University of Bristol,[22]Cardiff University[23] and a cemetery in Llanelli.[24] The New York skyline was added into the cemetery in post-production.[15]

The Doctor Who logo in the title sequence featured a texture showing the Statue of Liberty's crown,[25] in keeping with the varied "blockbuster" themes for each of the opening five episodes of the series.[26]

The Angel's Kiss: A Melody Malone Story

The story that the Doctor reads in this episode is titled The Angel's Kiss: A Melody Malone Story. BBC Books is due to publish this as an ebook on 4 October 2012.[27]

Broadcast and reception

"The Angels Take Manhattan" was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on 29 September 2012.[28] Overnight ratings showed that it was watched by 5.9 million viewers live, an increase of 400,000 from the previous week.[29] It also received an Appreciation Index of 88, the second highest of the series behind "Asylum of the Daleks" (89).[30]

Critical reception

The episode received positive reviews. Dan Martin of The Guardian gave a positive review, writing, "This was a fitting end to a golden era, and bravo to Steven Moffat for telling such an involving, emotional story with such style". He also praised the concept of the cherubs and the Angels in New York. However, he noted that he was "flummoxed" as to where in River's timeline the episode took place.[31]The Daily Telegraph reviewer Gavin Fuller gave it five out of five stars, concluding "'The Angels Take Manhattan' brought this mini-run of the series to a close with easily the best episode of the five: a powerful, taut, compelling, filmic, emotionally punchy affair which re-established the Angels as one of the standout monsters of the series and gave Amy Pond a fine send off". While he praised the four actors he felt Gillan was the star, and noted that Rory did not "get any sort of send-off".[32] Keith Phipps of The A.V. Club gave "The Angels Take Manhattan" a grade of A, attributing its success to "the way it does double duty as a twist adventure and a highly emotional story of farewells".[33]

Sam Wollaston, also writing for The Guardian, wrote positively of the scare factor in the episode, as well as the sadness.[34] Neela Debnath of The Independent described it as a "wonderful swansong to the duo" and particularly praised the "stylish" cinematography and sense of danger. However, she considered the "only flaw" to be "the rule that time cannot be changed if one knows what is going to happen ... though it is probably best not to question the timey wimey side of things and just accept it and enjoy the adventure".[35]IGN's Matt Risley rated the episode 9 out of 10, writing that it "stood strong as a heartfelt, emotional end for the TARDIS' longest serving companions (since the show's noughties' return at least), and the best episode of the season thus far". Risley also praised the three leads, though he did admit the episode "left a few nitpicky questions".[36]

Digital Spy reviewer Morgan Jeffery gave "The Angels Take Manhattan" five out of five stars, despite noting "plotholes ... and slightly-too-convenient plot contrivances" and that Rory did not get a heroic exit. Jeffery particularly praised the build-up to Amy and Rory's departure as well as the "superb production design".[37] Dave Golder of SFX awarded the episode four out of five stars, believing that the "bittersweet exit" of the Ponds distracted the viewer from various narrative problems, such as the Statue of Liberty. He felt that Gillan and Darvill "were on top form" as well as Smith's "brilliant performance" and a "less over-the-top River", and also wrote positively about the noir theme and the Angels using the Winter Quay as a battery farm.[25]The Huffington Post writer Maureen Ryan was more critical of the episode, worrying that the BBC's international promotion of the show was to the detriment of the quality of the writing. She felt that Amy deserved a better exit and "was crowded out by the distracting presence of River Song and by the fact that Rory was the one to make the essential choices first". She also personally disliked the "timey-whimey" devices, and commented that the "big and operatic tone the director was clearly going for clashed with the mood of film noir" and that the Angels "felt less menacing" and the "pace was a little too frantic".[38]

Following a malfunction on the TARDIS console and the bleating of a klaxon indicating something is amiss, the Doctor insists the fault locator shows nothing is wrong and it is safe to venture outside. He leads his companions Ian, Barbara and Susan to the world beyond and within minutes they find a dead giant earthworm followed by a large deceased ant. They seem to have died immediately. After some deduction the travellers realise they have arrived on Earth but have shrunk in size to about an inch.

Ian is investigating a discarded matchbox when someone picks it up and he is hurled around inside. That someone is a government scientist called Farrow. He is met by a callous industrialist named Forester to tell him that his application for DN6, a new insecticide, has been rejected. In reality DN6 should not be licensed: it is far too deadly to all insect life. When they fall out over this news, Forester shoots Farrow and leaves him for dead on the lawn.

The Doctor, Barbara and Susan hear the gunshot as an enormous explosion, and head for the house. They find Ian unhurt near the dead body and surmise a murder has taken place but can do little about it. They are determined, however, to ensure the murderer is brought to justice despite their microscopic size. While avoiding a cat, the travellers get split up again with Ian and Barbara hiding in a briefcase. The giant Forester returns to the lawn and collects the briefcase, taking it inside to the laboratory. His aide, Smithers, arrives and suspects him of murder, but does not report him for fear of undermining the DN6 project to which he has given his life.

The Doctor and Susan scale a drainpipe to gain access to the house and locate their friends, braving the height as they go. Meanwhile Ian and Barbara examine the laboratory and encounter a giant fly, which is killed instantly when it contacts sample seeds that had been sprayed with DN6. Barbara foolishly touched one seed earlier and soon starts to feel unwell. Nevertheless, attracted by Susan’s voice in the reverberating plughole, the four friends are reunited.

Forester has meanwhile doctored Farrow’s report so as to give DN6 the licence he wants and, disguising his voice as Farrow’s, makes a supportive phonecall to the ministry to the same effect. This is overheard by the local telephone operator, Hilda Rowse, and her policeman husband, Bert, who start to suspect something is wrong.

The Doctor has meanwhile realised the deadly and everlasting nature of DN6 and the probable contamination of Barbara. They try to alert someone by hoisting up the phone receiver with corks, but cannot make themselves heard. Hilda notes the engaged signal, however, and she and Bert become even more concerned. Forester and Smithers return to the lab and correct the engaged handset and then Hilda rings to check things are okay. She rings again moments later and asks for Farrow and, when Forester impersonates him, immediately spots the faked voice and so knows there is something badly wrong. Bert heads off to the house to investigate.

The Doctor and his companions decide to start a fire to attract attention to the house and succeed in setting up an aerosol can of insecticide and a lab bench gas jet as a bomb. This coincides with Smithers discovering the true virulence of DN6 - it's lethal to everything - and demanding Forester stop seeking a licence. Forester spots the makeshift bomb, which goes off in his face. Smithers retrieves the gun as PC Rowse arrives and then places both under arrest.

Their work done, the travellers return to the TARDIS and the Doctor reconfigures the machine to return them to normal size. Barbara, who was on the verge of death, recovers on being returned to full size; the insecticide and seed responsible aboard the TARDIS shrinking to their real microscopic and minuscule sizes.

An early draft of this story – by C.E. Webber and entitled The Giants – was originally meant to be the first story of the first season.[5]

Episode 4

This story was originally four episodes in length. Upon viewing Episodes 3 and 4, which focused more heavily on Hilda and Bert, Head of Drama Sydney Newman ordered them spliced together in order to form a faster-paced climax (Episode 3) focusing on the core characters of the series. Episode 4 was called "The Urge to Live" and directed by Douglas Camfield (instead of Mervyn Pinfield, who directed Episodes 1-3). When Episodes 3 and 4 were edited together to make the new Episode 3, only Camfield was credited.

The decision to splice the last two episodes into one would have ramifications for the second production block of the series, when the producers were left with a one-episode space following Galaxy 4. Rather than producing a single-episode stand-alone story or extend any of the planned serials, Mission to the Unknown was commissioned to serve as a prelude to The Daleks' Master Plan without the participation of any of the regular cast. This was produced in the same block as Galaxy 4, and both were held over to be the first two serials of Season 3.[6]

The 2012 DVD includes recreations of the original Episodes 3 and 4, based on the original scripts and featuring newly recorded dialogue and animation.[7]

In print

A novelisation of this serial, written by Terrance Dicks, was published by Target Books in January 1990. It was the final serial of the William Hartnell era to be novelised. The novel also reinstated much of the material cut to make the televised serial into three episodes.